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SPEECH BY MR KO KHENG HWA, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE SINGAPORE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD, AT THE OPENING OF LITE-ON SINGAPORE PTE LTD (LOSG) AT NORTHTECH, 29 WOODLANDS INDUSTRIAL PARK E1 ON 8 JULY 2008, 1.20 PM
Mr K. C. Terng, CEO of Lite-On Technology Corporation,
Mr Ngoh Kee Hane, General Manager of Lite-On Singapore Pte Ltd,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
1. A very good afternoon! I am delighted to join you at Lite-On’s opening ceremony and I am glad that Mr Terng has travelled all the way here for this event. This is indeed a significant occasion for both Lite-On and Singapore industry as the company, a world leader in optoelectronics, is opening in Singapore its first regional headquarters and R&D centre outside of Taiwan.
2. Singapore is today a key regional gateway for global companies and a global gateway for regional companies. These companies leverage on our conducive business environment, excellent infrastructure, extensive connectivity, skilled manpower and high standard of governance to make Singapore a critical hub in their global business operations.
3. Presently, some 4,000 multi-national companies are using Singapore as a base for their regional operations. This is what I mean by Singapore as a key regional gateway for global companies – we help bring the world’s businesses to Asia through Singapore. These companies use Singapore as a command and control centre to manage their regional businesses.
4. The rapidly growing economies in Asia are creating many strong indigenous companies able and eager to internationalise beyond their shores. Singapore is well-positioned to be a key global gateway for regional companies – we help bring Asia businesses to the world through Singapore. These companies use Singapore as an effective base to internationalise their business.
5. Today, Singapore hosts more than 3,000 companies from India, 3,000 from China, 900 from Taiwan, and many more from the other regional countries. Increasingly, these companies conduct the entire value chain of activities from Singapore. These include R&D, manufacturing and regional management.
6. Lite-On, a US$ 5.4 billion revenue Taiwanese high technology company, is an excellent example. It has set up in Singapore its first regional headquarters and R&D centre outside of Taiwan. It joins many Taiwanese companies with substantial operations here. Mediatek, Taiwan’s top fabless integrated circuit design company, has a sizeable IC design facility here. UMC, the world’s second largest semiconductor foundry, operates a multi-billion dollar wafer fabrication plant here. ASUS, the world number one computer motherboard manufacturer, has its industrial design centre and RHQ here. ASE, the world’s largest outsourced semiconductor assembly and test company, has a key semiconductor testing operation here.
7. Lite-On is the world leader in IrDA (Infrared Data Association) and photocoupler solutions. I am confident that the opening of Lite-On’s RHQ and R&D Centre in Singapore will shine a lot more light on the attractiveness of Singapore to Taiwanese companies and encourage more of them to consider setting up operations here.
8. Today marks the “lighting up” of the Singapore-Lite-On partnership. We look forward to deepening our relationship and there is much more we can do together. I would like to thank the management and staff of Lite-On for your confidence in Singapore, and I wish you every success and a bright future.
9. Thank you.
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